Uploaded July 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago

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Please note that this game has contents that can be uncomfortable to certain audience.

Play the game for free on Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/2177620/Ruza

Introduction: Ruza is an indie 2D RPG horror game with combat elements and world exploration (and a bit of romance) developed by Stroj, the story revolves around Jeremy, a scribe and other misfits on their journey to stop the 'Bloodrose' - dangerous vile liquid tendrils that spreads on the ground, takes root in every life form, and kills everything on its way. At the same time the team is followed by a strange reindeer whose name is Ruza.

Additional context from uploader: I found out this game on itch.io somewhere in March 2025, played a bit of the current version back then and was hyped to see the full game, but when the full game was released (June 20th), some drama happened between the dev and some guys on 4chan. From what I've seen, the author Stroj removed a lot of stuffs in the older version of this game and made many changes to turn it into a more horror-themed game at the last minute, which pissed them off because originally Ruza had a whole lot more cutscenes, humors and also optional dialogues that may have impacts on endings, the game had a brighter tone back then, even the character who has the same name as the game - Ruza, actually had its own personality and lore, now it's just... Something that gets in the way of the main character sometimes. It seems that Ruza was rushed, many stuffs were changed or removed, no multiple endings, the romance was cut down, the story doesn't make sense in some parts, and only one single ending. The author said in a Steam devlog (and also on Itch.io) that Ruza had been in development for like 10 years, they experienced burn out and also a head injury from last year, fans conspired it was because of their head injury that caused them to change Ruza and strip away its identity. After beating the game myself and having to cope with the ending, I don't know if the dev actually cooked or not, cuz I kinda got sad and depressed for a day or so, but at least they finished making Ruza, it's still free, I really like its music and arts, combat was hard to learn at first, the story probably doesn't satiate me, but it's not really that bad, may check out the older version lol.

You can download the older version of Ruza here: stroj.itch.io/ruza

There's this playlist from a popular youtuber who played the game with high quality voice acting from 2 years ago, watch them if you want to see the older version: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLENba4NF0eFRjUUpxynz8nPisA1NJPYwb&si=eKEUIsANR8vOb1i8

One last thing, I tried my best to remove the unnecessary parts, but for the love of my godly hours in this game I had to keep those parts where I spent time grinding and figuring out the right weapons and armors for each characters, just skip through those parts if you want to watch the cutscenes, short battles and bossfights, but keep in mind that common fights have kickass music too. Chapter 3 is short because I did not check any common fights, might have missed some ugly monsters and soundtracks.

Timestamps:
0:00 Main menu (with kickass music)
0:35 Chapter 1 (mostly cutscenes)
1:02:12 Grinding (just skip to bossfight)
1:47:16 Forest Mother (1st bossfight)
1:49:44 Cutscenes
2:21:37 Hibiska bossfight
2:29:31 Cutscenes
3:17:56 Grinding
3:43:19 Frozen Treasure Hunt side quest
3:45:19 Strange Vault side quest
3:55:25 Going to Pinewood (skip)
3:57:25 Cutscene
3:59:25 Exploration (skip)
4:05:02 Remains of the lumberjack expedition and getting a vile sample
4:05:53 Walking back to Pixie camp (skip)
4:06:58 Cutscene
4:13:11 Exploration (skip)
4:17:39 Getting the Fungal findings side quest and Secret chest side quest
4:18:09 Exploration (skip)
4:19:34 Secret chest side quest
4:19:44 Walking back to Pixie camp (skip)
4:22:23 Fungal finding side quest
4:23:25 Making sure something before going to Pinewood (skip)
4:24:11 Final things before going to Pinewood
4:29:41 Going to Pinewood fr this time
4:30:31 Pixie lumberjack sidequest
4:36:38 Buying stuffs (skip)
4:42:21 Last cutscene of chapter 1
4:47:46 Chapter 2
4:56:55 Buying stuffs and grinding (skip)
5:11:41 Cutscene, bossfight, and even more cutscenes
5:46:31 Buying stuffs (skip)
5:47:44 Upper floors
5:50:01 Grinding
5:58:05 Survival kits sidequest
5:58:50 Moxy and Ada gossips
6:02:25 Camila's lab and Mycologist's cache side quest
6:04:23 Cutscene
6:20:38 Grinding
6:30:23 Cutscene
6:33:35 Grinding
6:43:34 Cutscene
6:54:20 Teller of Lies (bossfight)
6:58:31 Cutscene
7:17:39 Buying stuffs
7:21:21 Shoeshine sidequest
7:21:27 Grinding
7:24:52 Cutscene
7:25:29 Buying stuffs
7:26:10 Cutscene
7:33:19 Buying stuffs
7:34:31 Infected morella
7:36:22 Grinding
7:46:02 Something foul sidequest
7:59:39 Exploration
8:00:19 Survival kit sidequest
8:00:33 Ruza's riddles sidequest
8:02:29 Cutscene
8:11:43 Vile Form Ada bossfight
8:14:25 Cutscene
8:27:32 Chapter 3
8:55:44 Ending